Starting the year as he means to go on, just-drinks' resident analyst, Ian Shackleton, considers where we should put our investment spend in 2018. Ian also looks at how the analyst community is reacting to the introduction of MiFiD II and explains the reasons behind his favourite drinks category.

The trials and tribulations of the white spirits category proved of interest to the analyst community in their notes following the release of Diageo's first-half results. On the one hand, baijiu is having a great time in China. On the other, vodka continues to struggle in the US.

In late-January, Diageo announced results for the first half of its fiscal-2018. Here, just-drinks takes a closer look at the group's sales performance by region in the six months to the end of December. All figures are on an organic basis.

In the same week as International Women's Day, the National Association for Female Executives named Diageo's North American unit as one of 2018's 'Top 60 Companies for Executive Women'. The news follows a raft of pledges from Diageo, through both its business and its brands, to champion equality. To mark International Women's Day, just-drinks talks to Cristina Diezhandino, Scotch category director & MD for Diageo's Reserve portfolio, about working in the whisk(e)y sectors, the future of Scotch and how bartenders are helping to propel Reserve brands.

On the day that Diageo released results for the first half of its fiscal-2018, just-drinks spoke to group CEO Ivan Menezes about the geopolitical issues on the horizon, Bacardi's takeover of Patron Tequila and what on earth Jane Walker will be.

just-drinks is in Cannes this week the Tax Free World Association show. Here's the second part of Andy Morton's blog, which will keep you up-to-date at one of the most important dates in the Travel Retail calendar.